Dai Bosatsu Mandala Day

Dai Bosatsu Mandala Day is celebrated with a special chanting ceremony on the Thursday or Sunday closest to the 21st of the month in the Carriage House Zendo. When Mandala Day falls on a Thursday, the Thursday evening service will start with one sitting from 6-6:45 followed by kinhin and then Mandala Day chanting at 7pm.

Please wear tabi or clean white socks. Chanting is followed by a convivial gathering in the Joshua Forman House with tea and sweets.

Mandala Day commemorates the spiritual interrelationship between Soen Nakagawa Roshi and Ven. Nyogen Senzaki, who, unable to meet face to face, agreed to exchange Dharma greetings to each other across the Pacific on the 21st of every month through their chanting, zazen, and bows. Celebrated simultaneously at International Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji and New York Zendo Shobo-ji, this ceremony pays homage to those in our lineage and all related teachers known and unknown who have helped to further the Buddha-Dharma. An inspiring account of the significance of Mandala Day is given in Eido Shimano Roshi's Introduction to Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa, compiled and translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi Sensei and Shinge Roshi.